Austin's median home listing price fell 10.2% year over year in October, dropping to $439,650 — a steeper decline than Dallas-Fort Worth or Houston saw over the same stretch, even though Austin's asking price remains above both. The figures come from Realtor.com's monthly housing report, which tracks asking prices for homes currently on the market rather than final sale prices.
Realtor.com's comparison shows Austin's decline outpaced Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Dallas-Fort Worth's median listing price came in at $419,900 in October, down 1.2% year over year, while Houston's median sat at $350,000, a 2.2% annual decline.
It's worth noting what these numbers do and do not measure. Realtor.com listing prices represent what sellers are asking for homes currently on the market, not the price those homes ultimately sell for — a distinction confirmed by Federal Reserve Economic Data, which defines a median listing price as simply the median asking price in a market during a given month.
Inventory Climbs While Fewer Homes Go Under Contract
Nationally, the housing market showed a similar split between more homes sitting on shelves and fewer buyers stepping up to purchase them. The national median list price was $415,000 in October, down 2.2% from a year earlier and marking the 12th consecutive month of annual declines, per Realtor.com's October housing report. At the same time, active inventory reached 1,183,500 homes nationwide, up 7.4% year over year, even as new listings fell 7.5% to 357,000.
The report also found that homes under contract dropped 10.5% year over year — the steepest annual decline since October 2023, and the third straight monthly drop. About 20.5% of active listings nationwide had their prices cut in October, down slightly from September but still a touch above the share seen a year earlier.
In Austin specifically, new listings fell 11.9% year over year and the median time a home sat on the market increased by five days, the Statesman reported. Active inventory in the Austin metro still grew 1.3% year over year, and 26.2% of active listings there carried price reductions — a share that was actually 0.6 percentage points lower than a year earlier, even as it remained above the reduction rates in Houston.
Dallas, Houston and San Antonio Show Different Patterns
Dallas-Fort Worth's active inventory declined 1.7% year over year even as new listings there fell 6.1%, and 26.4% of its listings had price cuts. Houston's inventory grew 4.9% year over year while new listings dropped 12.2%, with 20.3% of its listings price-reduced — the lowest share among the four metros.
These October figures sit against a broader Texas backdrop that looked somewhat different just two months earlier. In August, statewide home price growth was flat, ending a 15-month stretch of annual declines, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. That same August data showed Houston prices rising 0.7% year over year while Dallas saw mild softening near a 1% annual decline — and sales slowed 11% in DFW and 5.7% in Houston even as Austin and San Antonio posted year-over-year sales gains. The research center also noted that Austin prices remained below year-ago levels in August, though the pace of decline had moderated.
Why Falling Prices Haven't Made Homes More Affordable
Despite the price declines, mortgage rates are working against buyers hoping for a break. Thirty-year mortgage rates averaged 7.33% in October, 110 basis points above a year earlier, Realtor.com's report found. That combination of higher borrowing costs and persistently high prices has left monthly payments far steeper than they used to be.
That affordability squeeze shows up starkly in Austin's own five-year trend. Even though the city's typical listing price fell 18% over five years, the estimated monthly principal-and-interest payment on a home climbed 33% over that same period, according to Yahoo Finance. The gap illustrates how falling list prices alone haven't been enough to counteract the bite of higher borrowing costs for Texas homebuyers.
